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Dorothy Bishop FRS FBA FMedSci
Dorothy Bishop at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2014
Born	Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop (1952-02-14) 14 February 1952 (age 66)
Other names	Deevy Bishop
Alma mater	University of Oxford (BA, MA, DPhil) University of London (MPhil)
Spouse(s)	Patrick Rabbitt (m. 1976) [1][2]
Awards	Honorary DSc[3] Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow[when?]
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology Neuroscience Language Developmental disorders[4]
Institutions	University of Oxford University of Manchester[5] Newcastle University[1]
Thesis	Comprehension of Grammar Normal and Abnormal Development (1977)
Doctoral advisor	Freda Newcombe
Website	deevybee.blogspot.co.uk www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/dorothy-bishop

Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop FRS FBA FMedSci (born 14 February 1952)^[1] is a British psychologist specialising in developmental disorders^[6] specifically, developmental language impairments. She is Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, where she has been since 1998. Bishop is Principal Investigator for the Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments (OSCCI). She is a supernumary fellow of St John's College, Oxford.

Early life and education

Bishop was born on 14 February 1952.^[1] In 1973, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford.^[7] In 1975, she completed work on her Master of Philosophy degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of London.^[7] In 1978, Bishop completed her Doctor of Philosophy from University of Oxford.^[8][7]

While studying for her undergraduate degree, Bishop generated an interest in cognitive disorders.^[7] Because she enjoyed neuropsychology, she returned to Oxford beneath her mentor Freda Newcombe^[8] to work at a Neuropsychology Unit in the Radcliffe Infirmary.^[7] The careful direction provided by Newcombe steered Bishop towards cases of children with developmental language disorders.^[7] This direction launched her career as a developmental neuropsychologist.

Research and career

Bishop conducts research into Psychology, Neuroscience, Language and Developmental disorders.^{[4][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]} She is one of the co-founders of the video-led campaign, RALLI, which aims to develop awareness of language learning impairments including Specific language impairment.^[16]

Bishop has published some of her academic work as D.V.M. Bishop. This is to avoid any prejudices that may be held against her as a female academic.^[3] Her publications include Language development in exceptional circumstances (1988),^[17]Handedness and developmental disorders(1990),^[18] and Uncommon understanding (1997).^[19][20]

Bishop's research is extensive as she helped to build and develop the developmental language impairment field.

Dorothy Bishop, occasionally published as DVM Bishop, is Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford.^[21] Bishop, funded by the Wellcome Trust, leads a series of research of children’s communication disorders.^[7] Unlike many of her contemporaries, Bishop’s interests are wide spread, deviating from neuropsychology, towards behavior genetics, auditory processing, hemispheric specialization, specific language disorders, autism, and dyslexia.^[7]

Many of today’s assessment methods for children’s language were generated by Bishop including the Test for Reception of Grammar and the Children’s Communication Checklist.^[7] Her research has been funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC)^[22] and the Wellcome Trust.^[7]

Children's Communication Checklist

In 1998, Bishop created what she called the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC).^[23] The goal of the CCC was to help diagnose children who did not have an apparent reason for communication errors. The CCC specifically looked to identify pragmatic language and specific language impairments. The CCC allowed Bishop and other researchers to reliably identify language impairments but give clues to other potential disorders which may not have been apparent such as high functioning autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or Williams syndrome.^[24] A second, updated, edition of the CCC was released in 2001.

Bishop has done significant groundbreaking work on Specific Language Impairment and Pragmatic Language Impairment. She is often an unsung hero in her research and contribution as she often pairs with other scholars in her various studies.

Bishop’s inquiry and interest in language impairments continues as she tries to understand children’s developmental language issues.

CATALISE

When Bishop began her studies of cognitive disorders, research to language development was relatively limited. Though more research has been conducted, there is not a cohesive framework of research for specialists to rely on when assessing and diagnosing children with language disorders. In 2016, Bishop began a multiple part Delphi project. In this particular project, Bishop is attempting to define a set criteria for identifying children who may need intervention through a multinational and multidiscipline study.^[25] In the first phase of this study, 59 experts of various fields such as education, speech-language therapy, and pediatrics from different countries such New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and United States of America participated in this study to provide a range of expertise and experience.^[25] The researchers submitted findings to a panel who agreed with an 80% consensus.^[25] In phase two of this project, similar parameters were followed to determine what terminology should be accepted in studies and treatment.^[25]

RALLI

Because of her intense study of children’s language impairments, Bishop co-founded RALLI. RALLI is an advocacy group with an intent to Raise Awareness of Learning Language Impairments.^[26] An underfunded group, their blog turned webpage provide an extensive series of information from videos to articles about Language Learning Impairments and where parents, teachers, and children can find help.^[26] Bishop and her fellow researchers have a YouTube channel for RALLI which details what language impairments are, how often they occur, and when to find help.^[26] The blog has not been updated since 2013.

Doctoral students and postdocs

Bishop has supervised and mentored numerous Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) students and postdoctoral researchers in her laboratory including Jessie Rickets,^[27] Wing Yin Chow,^[28] Wai-Lap Wong,^[29] and Chongying Wang.^[30]

Awards and honours

Bishop was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014 for “substantial contributions to the improvement of natural knowledge”. Her nomination reads:^[6]

Dorothy Bishop is the leading researcher on developmental disorders affecting language and communication. Her work has been foundational for the genetics of developmental disorders: she has been a pioneer in the use of twin data to reveal genetic contributions to language disorders, using theoretically motivated measures to refine the heritable phenotype. She has devised measures that differentiate types of language impairment and are now indispensable for both research and clinical diagnosis. By comparing and contrasting dyslexia, specific language impairment and autism, Bishop has challenged views of these as discrete conditions, and illuminated what is shared and distinctive about each disorder.

Bishop is also a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).^[31] She has honorary degrees from Lund University, the University of Western Australia and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.^[32]

Personal life

Bishop married Patrick Rabbitt in 1976.^[1][2] As "Deevy Bishop", Bishop wrote three humorous crime novels for the Amazon Kindle.^[33]

Bishop is an avid blogger which demonstrates her interests beyond language impairments.^[34] The blog received the runner up recognition for the Good Thinking Society: UK Science Blog Prize 2012.^[35]

References

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.